Archive for January, 2018

“The Way of Divine Ignorance, which I am moved to communicate and to demonstrate, rests on the presumption which precedes our birth, our life, and our death. This is the presumption of Ignorance. No matter what arises, ‘I’ do not know what a single thing is–not even the body, not even the sense of my own separate existence.

In this disposition it becomes clear that ‘I’ is not independent of the body, nor is the body-I an independent or absolutely separate entity, self, or being. Such is only an illusion, a reactive presumption, a hopeful or hopeless but always tentative solution to the dilemma inherent in our birth.”

-Adi Da Samraj

MICHAEL: The “mistake” that almost all spiritual seekers make is thinking of themselves as the body and then trying to “get free” as that. Not only is this not possible, it leads to much suffering.

In the above quote, Adi Da is saying something much different and extremely rare: that you do not know what anything truly is. Yes, you can know ABOUT things, their label (name/sound) and info about the label, but you can never, never, ever know what ANYTHING actually IS. (Let this sink in!)

It’s this admission of pure ignorance that, ironically, leads to peace. Note, this is not playing ostrich, and pretending that you don’t know what anything is. It’s realizing, with clarity, that in fact your actual condition is one of pure ignorance and this has always been the case. Naturally, this reveals the ego as a fraud, an illusion, one who pretends to know but truly doesn’t.

Of course, the ego will deny this and give you arguments why you do need it and why it knows lots of things. But the earnest seeker is no longer buying it. They smell a rat. And so instead of resisting this realization of ignorance, it is a celebration, a release from the habitually unconscious act of “self-contracting.” For finally you realize that the only thing you know is that you don’t know anything.

When this is seen, you find yourself naturally being as silence/presence is presently being. Free of the influence of all temporary imaginings and thoughts, because you are PRIOR to anything that arises, including the body. For your true nature is prior even to birth.

“The Realization of Truth is not attained by any reaction to the present conditions of existence. Whatever is the Truth, it must be True at this moment. It must be always already True, both in and prior to every moment of space-time.

Therefore, the Realization of Truth is not attained in the search for Truth, since seeking must necessarily bypass the Truth in this moment in order to pursue it as an eventual Goal of action in time and space.”

-Adi Da Samraj

MICHAEL: I must forget/dismiss/ignore/fail-to-notice/fail-to-appreciate that this moment is already all the Truth in existence, so that I can then begin to search for “it” in some imaginary location. And I can do this for the rest of my life.

“Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.”-C.K. Chesterton

MICHAEL: Whatever we hold on to weighs us down. It doesn’t matter if it’s a physical object or a mental object, such as a thought, feeling, story or belief. If we don’t freely allow what comes to come and what goes to go, we get backed up.

For example, when it comes to eating, elimination of food is as vital to our health as taking in food. If we try to hang on to the food without eliminating it, we become constipated and suffer. Life is movement, flow. Freely and happily allow what comes to come and what goes to go. Hold onto nothing.

“The fear of death is the beginning of understanding. Seeking is simply clinging to various concepts, goals, things, methods, and paths that seem to promise relief from death, from the knowledge of death, and from all suffering, which is separation and death.

THE MAN WHO KNOWS THERE IS NO RELIEF FROM DEATH UNDERSTANDS. HE KNOWS THAT THAT WHICH SEEKS RELIEF FROM DEATH MUST DIE. THUS, HIS SEEKING COMES TO AN END.

His fear, which is resistance to death, ends. He ceases to operate as the one who must die and who seeks release from death. He abides in understanding, which is prior to the one who must die.”

-Adi Da Samraj

MICHAEL: Sometimes we have to go on a “journey,” only to end up back where we started, but with new eyes. I was familiar with Adi Da, but the essence of his teaching escaped me the first time around (which is understandable, as he put out many books on many topics over his lifetime).

However, I now realize what his profound and almost unheard of core teaching was: that all our gestures, every activity the mind/body concocts is for the single purpose of distracting oneself from the elephant in the room: DEATH.

Death hangs like a sword over our neck every second, yet because that thought is so terrifying, the mind does everything it can to divert our attention to “creating a life for ourselves” so as to avoid dealing directly with it. Thus, it seeks distraction via entertainment, food, sex, money, relationships, a spiritual journey, etc. virtually non-stop.

However, this does not resolve the core fear, but rather just attempts to cover it up. Much like a child who covers their own eyes in hopes that this futile gesture prevents the “boogeyman” from seeing them. We are only fooling ourselves.

It turns out that our starting assumption, that we are the body who was born and will die, MUST be challenged one way or another. Meaning, either you are the body and you will die, or you are not. Which is it? Are you sure? And if you are not sure, why assume you are the body?

I capitalized the 2nd paragraph in the Adi Da quote above, because it’s the realization that there is nothing to be done about death of the body that, paradoxically, brings unfounded peace, joy and liberation. In other words, you finally, for the first time in your life, stop running from death.

This is an energetic experience, not just mental. Something in you physically relaxes. It’s a total surrendering. It’s a giving to death what belongs to death because it is seen that death has nothing to do with you… and never did.

MICHAEL: Be in Satsang 24/7. Silently notice every moment which is mind and which is presence. Get clear on what comes and goes and what is ever-present. The realization is that it’s all You. You are all that’s ever existed. Get to know Yourself.

MICHAEL: I rarely hear the experience of “Boredom” discussed in spiritual sharings, yet as the desire for anything worldly/dream related falls away, this can often be where we find ourselves; frozen, stuck, nothing makes me happy, bored.

Thankfully, Self reminders appear to show us the way. In the excerpts below, Sri Summairu reminds us that it is when we stop noticing, stop looking deeper, stop being curious that Life can feel Lifeless…

“The only time anything can feel boring, dead, lifeless; is if we are not fully alive to life itself. There is an aliveness to life in every instance, it’s ever-expanding unto itself. When we are present as presence itself, there are no thought overlays, which filter life through our ideas of it. Only thoughts can feel boring, dead, lifeless because thoughts are made-up words which are incapable of feeling anything and only thoughts are empty of the essence of life.

Nothing is ever static, except for the mind of thoughts. As a result, boredom is a sure sign that inner growth has stopped, or simply put, life stopped noticing itself.

Don’t take the boredom at face value, question it. Feel into it. Notice it for what it is. Notice how [Life] is boring because it’s predictable and familiar. There is no mystery or wonder left in it (which is what life itself actually is). Very few speak from presence, so nothing new and fresh is being said.

However, when one is truly empty enough, life moves into that emptiness and life begins to see itself everywhere. When this happens, life never gets bored of seeing itself. Boredom (dullness, unfeeling, dryness, non-radiant, non-vibrate, non-aliveness, etc) is not a quality of life itself, but a quality of what happens when life doesn’t see itself everywhere.”